Ker, Mary Susan, 1838-1923

Mary Susan Ker of Natchez, Miss., was the daughter of cotton planter and American Colonization Society vice-president, John Ker (1789-1850) and Mary Baker Ker (d. 1862).

From the description of Mary Susan Ker papers, 1785-1958. WorldCat record id: 23289839

Mary Susan Ker (1838-1923), daughter of Mary Baker and John Ker, was born near Natchez, Mississippi, in 1838. John Ker (1789-1850) had studied medicine in Philadelphia, served as a surgeon in the Creek War, married Mary Kenard Baker of Kentucky in 1820, and become a cotton planter. He also served as vice president and agent of the American Colonization Society and vice president of the Mississippi Colonization Society.

Mary Susan Ker had eleven siblings, five of whom survived to adulthood: Sarah Evelina (1823-1868) married Richard E. Butler in 1849; David (1825-1884), a lawyer and sugar planter, married Elizabeth Brownson of New York and had six children; John, Jr. (1826-1870), a lawyer and cotton planter, married Rosalthe and had several children; Lewis Baker (1831-1894), a planter who took over most of their father's interests, married first Jane Percy, with whom he had Mamie, Nellie, and other children, and second Susan Hampton Percy, with whom he had more children; and William Henry (1841-1902), a cotton planter and later a teacher who served as principal of the Natchez Institute, superintendent of the Natchez white public schools, president of the State Board of Education, and teacher and conductor of Peabody Summer Normal Schools. He married Josie Chamberlain and had two children.

Raised mostly at Linden, the family home near Natchez, Mary Susan Ker also lived for some time at Good Hope plantation near Vidalia, Concordia Parish, Louisiana. In the 1850s, she was taught by Mme. Heloise de Mailly. When the Civil War started, Ker was living with her mother in Natchez. She remained there after her mother died in 1862.

The Ker family suffered financial reverses and disruption after the Civil War. David Ker tried to cultivate sugar at Linden in Terrebonne Parish, Louisiana, but was not able to provide adequately for his family. His mother-in-law took his wife and some of his children to New York to live. David eventually gave up sugar planting and went into business with his father-in-law, John Brownson, in New York.

William Henry (Willie) Ker first tried cotton farming. When John Ker's wife Rosalthe died in 1865, John sent his son William Bisland (Willie B.) Ker to help Willie work the land and sent his daughters to parochial schools. John died in 1870. Willie gave up farming and turned to teaching. Willie and Mary Susan Ker lived together for a time after the war. This arrangement probably ended soon after Willie married Josie Chamberlain in 1871.

Lewis Ker's first wife died during the war so he sent his daughters Mamie and Nellie to live with Mary Susan Ker and be educated. Mary Susan Ker became the girls' guardian in 1867 and in 1871 made a will which divided her property between them. In order to support herself and her wards, Mary Susan Ker turned to teaching. She obtained a Second Grade teaching certificate in 1874 and began teaching at Public School No. 28 in Adams County, Mississippi. Her brother Willie at this time was teaching in Port Gibson, Mississippi. In the 1870s and 1880s, Mary held several teaching positions. In the early 1880s, Mary had more freedom after her niece Mamie married and Nellie went to live with Willie and his wife in Port Gibson.

In 1886, Mary went to Europe as a travelling companion to her cousin Amelia Metcalfe Choppin and Amelia's 20-year-old daughter Rose. They travelled eighteen months in France, Italy, England, Germany, and Switzerland. Upon her return to the United States in November 1887, Mary visited friends in New York and Philadelphia, and then in December returned home to Mississippi, where she stayed with various family members in Natchez, Vicksburg, and other locations. In August 1888 she accepted a position as housekeeper and governess to the four children of William Scarborough Jones, a Vicksburg widower. Ker remained with the Jones family until May of 1892, when, after passing the public school teachers' examinations, she applied for a teaching position at the Natchez Institute, the white public school where her brother Willie was principal. She remained in Natchez until December 1892, but no teaching position being open, went to work for the Butler family at The Cedars near Bayou Sara, Louisiana. Ker worked at The Cedars until July of 1894. During her year at Bayou Sara, Nellie's husband (Mr. Pearl) and Mamie, as well as Mary's brother Lewis, all died. Mamie left five children: Albert, Mary, Matilda (Tillie), Catharine, and Percy.

Mary wanted to raise two of Mamie's children, Catharine and Tillie, but did not at first have the resources to do so. Catharine went to live with the Hiserodt family and Tillie went to stay with Willie, and a year later Catharine moved to Willie's as well. To earn the money to raise her nieces, Mary returned to teaching. In September 1894 she joined the staff at Mrs. Blake's School in New Orleans, but did not get reelected to teach for the 1895-1896 school year. With no other possibilities before her she reluctantly again became a governess, this time for the widower Mr. Killingsworth on his Galilee Plantation near Cannonsburg, Mississippi. Catharine lived with Mary at the Killingsworths, while Tillie remained at Willie's during this year. The following fall, however, Ker returned to teaching. She taught the 1896-1897 school year at Stanton College in Natchez and arranged it so that Catherine could also attend school there. Mary taught in the public school system for the next 18 years, and continued to live in Natchez for the remainder of her life.

Ker taught at the Natchez Institute from 1897 to 1907, and later from 1907 to 1915 at the Shield's Lane School, located a few miles outside Natchez in Adams County. She was the school's only teacher and administrator. During much of this time Mary, along with Tillie and Catharine, stayed with Willie and Josie. One year after Willie's death in 1902, Mary rented a house in Natchez, where she lived with Tillie and Catharine until 1917, at which time Tillie bought a house in Natchez. After the Shield's Lane School closed in 1915, Mary Ker tutored part time for a few years and then retired from teaching altogether. She lived with Tillie and Catharine, and they supported her until her death in 1923.

Tillie Dunbar graduated from Stanton College in Natchez in 1904, and went to work as a clerk in a local store, Baker and McDowell. In 1912 she left her job there to become a stenographer for the law firm of Truly and Ratliffe, and then in 1918 became a clerk in a bank owned by Truly in Fayette, Mississippi, where she boarded, returning home for weekends. Catharine Dunbar graduated from Natchez Institute in 1905, and attended the University of Mississippi at Oxford, completing her studies there in 1908. She then began teaching at the Natchez Institute, where she remained until 1918. She left that position to work in a Natchez bank.

For additional information on the life of Mary Susan Ker, see Amy L. Holley, But One Dependence: Mary Susan Ker and Southern Public Education, 1876-1914, Master's Thesis, University of North Carolina, Chapel Hill, 1989. For information on Ker's family connections see the John Brownson Ker Papers, #3901, in the Southern Historical Collection.

From the guide to the Mary Susan Ker Papers, 1785-1958, (University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill. Library. Southern Historical Collection.)